Identifying An Animal Hoarder: Animal Hoarding Part 1

There are 900 – 2,000 new cases of animal hoarding every year in the U.S. with a startling estimate of 250,000 animals falling victim. Men and women of all ages, races, and walks of life can be animal hoarders. While cats are a frequently hoarded animal, they aren’t the only species to be hoarded. Animal hoarders will collect cats, dogs, ferrets, rats, and many other species including farm animals.

What is Animal Hoarding?

Failing to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in illness and death from starvation, spread of infectious disease, and untreated injury or medical condition

Denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling

Persistence, despite this failure, in accumulating and controlling animals”

In a nutshell, animal hoarding is having more animals in your care than you can reasonably care for financially, emotionally, or physically. Animal hoarders are not able to provide proper nutrition, shelter (with enough room for each animal), and veterinary care for all of their animals. Typically the home that the hoarders live in is not suitable for the animals or themselves and their family. Animal hoarders don’t see the harm that they are doing.

What Makes People Become Animal Hoarders?

Animal Hoarding is a complicated behavior that is not yet fully understood by psychologists. No one knows for certain exactly why an animal hoarder behaves the way that they do. Originally animal hoarding was associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). However, there appear to be some commonalities with a number of other mental illnesses such as dementia, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, and more.

Animal hoarding is very similar to object hoarding. It seems that cases of animal hoarding always begin with a traumatic event that happens to the hoarder. There is a growing movement to create a new disorder in the DSM-V (the diagnostic manual for mental disorders) for animal hoarders.

3 Different Types of Animal Hoarders

Each case of hoarding is unique, but it seems that they can be grouped into 3 basic types. Not all cases will fit cleanly into one category. Most animal hoarders will fit into the first 2 categories.

Overwhelmed Caregiver
These animal hoarders are the type that started out with a reasonable amount of pets and passively assumed more pets (“the cats had kittens, and then those cats had kittens,”etc) until the population got out of control. An event or circumstance plays a part in their accumulation of animals. They are likely to be somewhat aware of the problem they’ve created and socially isolated.

Rescue Hoarder
A rescue hoarder is on a mission to save as many animals as they can. These hoarders are afraid that the animals will be killed in anyone else’s care. They feel that they are the only ones who can care for these animals. Often rescue hoarders will have a network of enablers.

Exploiter Hoarder
Unlike the first 2 types of hoarders who want nothing more than to care for the animals they hoard, these hoarders don’t care about the well-being of the animals. The purpose of hoarding the animals is to use them for the needs of the hoarder. Exploiter hoarders have sociopathic tendencies with little remorse for the harm they cause. Beware – they may be very charming and manipulative.

What Are the Signs That Someone Hoards Animals?

It is important to notice the signs of animal hoarding. Animal hoarders are likely not “bad people” rather they are people who have an illness and need help. The more people who are educated about animal hoarding behavior, the more animal hoarders and animals who can be helped.

The first thing you might notice about an animal hoarder’s house is that it is dilapidated. Since they don’t really have the means to take care of the number of animals they have, the house is likely to look as if it is being run by the animals. The smell of ammonia can be a tip-off to the fact that urine and feces are not being removed properly. In some cases, urine, feces, and vomit may be caked onto floors and surfaces. Fleas, mice, and other insects may be infesting the house.

The hoarder him/herself may seem a bit unkempt. However, many hoarders live a double life, which makes it hard for people at their work or other places outside the home to believe that they could live in such squalor. They have learned to conceal their hoarding to avoid the criticism of others.

Take notice if the animals do not appear healthy. They may be lethargic, sickly, or thin. Many will be lacking socialization. Even with the most obvious signs that the animals are not healthy, the hoarder will insist that they are indeed healthy and happy. The hoarder will 100% believe what they are saying about the happiness of the animals. This disconnect from reality is a major symptom animal hoarding.

13 Comments

we’ve never known any hoarders, but mom has certainly worked with animals out of these situations and it is BEYOND sad and heartbreaking. so many of the animals are sick and have behavior issues. great article – we hope more people will start looking and trying to help these animals.

Wow! I’m so glad you are doing this series. A few years ago my human reported on hoarding and actually followed a rescue hoarding case for many months. I hope more research goes into this, to really figure out how to treat this sad illness.

I’m so glad you are doing this series. I found the breakdown of the three types very interesting. I have worked on two hoarding cases through the shelter I volunteer at. One years ago when I first started in rescue – I am still haunted by the circumstances those poor cats lived in.
Ruby, our dog, was also rescued from a severe neglect – hoarding situation so this is an issue that really gets to me.

It’s a sad commentary that hoarding isn’t unusual. I have a friend who used to work with CPS and other child services. She said that often, hoarders also may not care well for their kids. Thanks for shining a light on this tragic situation.

I’ve been trying to read this post all day – but for some reason it wouldn’t come up in Chrome 🙁
Then I had the brilliant idea of trying Explorer. These cases make me so sad. Life is so precious … and isn’t a hoardable commodity. I don’t have the finances to have more than one cat … though I want so badly to save as many as I can.

Wow, this is a huge eye opener and a fantastic post! I’ve experienced hoarders at the shelter; sometimes a known hoarder will continue to try adopting. I’ve never seen an animal hoarder’s home or learned this much about the psyche of a hoarder. Thanks for this great information, I can’t wait to read more in your next post!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

Although I don’t personally know any animal hoarders, I am glad to see that is being explained from a compassionate viewpoint. While it is certainly unfair to the animals, I believe that many animal hoarders are trying to do the best they can for their animals. I don’t know how to respond to the third type, but the first two deserve compassion and understanding, as well as help dealing with their issues. I look forward to reading the next post about animal hoarding.

Animal hoarding is so sad. We have had quite a few instances at some local farms and who knows how many more are out there that we don’t know of. Thank you for posting some of the signs so we can all be aware.

Robin, this is a great post. So many people have this problem. The Rescue group Tom and I are part of are called in very often
to remove kitties from these situations. Unfortunately, the process just begins over again if the hoarder does not get some professional help. Looking forward to reading part 2.

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